Germany sees rise in anti-foreigner violence

BERLIN (AP) — The number of attacks against foreigners in Germany rose 20 percent last year to the highest level since 2006.

Government figures released Wednesday showed there were 473 xenophobic attacks in 2013, up from 393 the previous year.

Germany's top security official, Thomas de Maiziere, expressed concern that far-right extremists were using the rise in asylum applications to incite hatred against foreigners. The country recently agreed to double the number of Syrians it takes in to 20,000 and is also seeing an overall rise in immigrants.

Germany's annual report on domestic radicalism found a small drop in members of far-right extremists to 21,700 from 22,150. But the number of far-right extremists prepared to use violence remained stable at 9,600 people.